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Use Your Smartphone to Plan Your Own Stay at the Hotel Monteleone

Where: 214 Royal St. [map], New Orleans, LA, United States, 70130

Forget using an iPad 2 to connect to a hotel's services. At the Hotel Monteleone, all you need to get keyed in is your smartphone. The hotel has started a new Mobile Passport program that will give you access to your reservation—including room type, confirmation number, arrival/departure dates and room number—as well as e-concierge services from your iPhone or Android.

The way it works is that upon booking a reservation at the Hotel Monteleone, leave your email address. Then you'll receive a confirmation email and a personalized link to the Mobile Passport so you can start planning your stay right away.

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Hotel Doughnuts / Hotel Restaurants / New Orleans Hotels / Marriott Hotels / → All Tags

New Orleans Marriott to Give out Beignets for National Doughnut Day

Where: 555 Canal St. [map], New Orleans , LA, United States, 70130

National Doughnut Day is coming June 3, and instead of celebrating with a boring jelly-filled or chocolate glazed, our mouth is watering for a good old N'Awlins beignet. The New Orleans Marriott is giving out free beignets every Friday in June to celebrate our new favorite holiday.

Beignets are deep-fried dough pieces covered in powdered sugar, similar to New York's zeppole, but square instead of round. The doughy, greasy goodness is the official Louisiana state doughnut.

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Hotels Doing Good / New Orleans Hotels / Marriott Hotels / Movember / Hotel Bars / → All Tags

Got Mustache? The New Orleans Marriott Wants To Buy You A Drink

Where: 555 Canal St. [map], New Orleans, LA, United States, 70130

Beards may be big in Brooklyn, but during November, the 'mo is the way to go. The annual celebration of the mustache known as Movember has become so big that Malin Akerman is starring in one of their promos, and now hotels are getting down with the mo, too.

If you've got a mustache to flaunt, one of the best places to be this month is the New Orleans Marriott, where that furry top lip can snag you a free drink.

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Hotel Snapshot / W Hotels / New Orleans Hotels / Hotel Pet Peeves / Hotel Design / → All Tags

The W French Quarter Needs to Rethink Their Ironing Board Situation

Where: 316 Chartres St [map], New Orleans, LA, United States, 70130

Just in time for Halloween, here's a rather "scary" hotel design snafu--an exposed ironing board at the W Hotel French Quarter in New Orleans, sent into us by a reader. The photo was taken this past Sunday. The guest writes:

After paying more than $300/night for this W Hotel, we really expected a design experience way superior to what we actually got. The ironing board was just the perfect example of the design sensibility displayed by this property. I still cannot believe that this actually is a W Hotel. Never again.

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Does Anyone Actually Request The Porn At The W New Orleans?

Where: 333 Poydras Street [map], New Orleans, LA, United States, 70130

During our trip to New Orleans last week, after our encounters with hideously rude staff and a cockroach, we took refuge at the W Poydras Street. And as we were flicking through the info, we couldn’t help but notice that the DVD library included a porn selection, but that you’d have to call down - not just to order a film, but even to ask for the titles:

For adult titles from our collection, please contact whatever/whenever

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Snapshot / Hotel Hell / New Orleans Hotels / Dirty Hotels / → All Tags

A Greeting From The Wrong Type of Ambassador at the Ambassador Hotel

Where: 535 Tchoupitoulas St [map], New Orleans, LA, United States, 70130

A dead cockroach. Not exactly what you want to greet you when you walk into a hotel room, but hey, this is New Orleans and these things happen.

Yes, after we checked out of our holiday-romance-gone-wrong at International House, we checked into the Ambassador Hotel on Tchoupitoulas, where we scored what was possibly the last hotel room left in New Orleans on game night for $69.99.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the kind of ambassador we were hoping for (and neither was the hair on the bath behind it). The view wasn’t too exciting either, consisting as it did of 10 inches of air and then a brick wall.

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HotelChatter Reviews / Hotel Video Tours / New Orleans Hotels / Free WiFi Hotels / Hotel Hell / → All Tags

International House: A Lesson In Why You Should Never Revisit a Holiday Romance

Where: 221 Camp Street [map], New Orleans, LA, United States, 70130

Yesterday we told you about our free WiFi (and bad service) hell at the International House in New Orleans. But while our computer hated its stay, how did we find it? Here goes...

Check-In: We already knew we loved the beautiful lobby area of International House because we stayed there two years ago and adored our stay. The guy on the desk was lovely, and gave us the key to room 1005. (When we booked over the phone, we asked whether we could get a discount for staying alone, and instead, they slipped us an upgrade from a queen to a king room, since we had stayed there before).

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Hotel Hell / Hotel Service / Free WiFi / New Orleans Hotels / → All Tags

Free WiFi Doesn't Mean Functioning WiFi at International House in New Orleans

Where: 221 Camp Street [map], New Orleans, LA, United States, 70130

How’s that for a list of WiFi options? We were beside ourselves with excitement when we arrived in New Orleans yesterday and got these babies from our hotel bed. Even better, the WiFi at our hotel--the International House, owned by hot hotelier Sean Cummings--would be free. (That’s actually why we booked it-- we even called to confirm, such devotees to the Free WiFi cause we are).

But--you could see a but coming, no?--unfortunately, our free WiFi was not to be. Mainly because we have an annoying Mac that occasionally isn’t recognized by hotel WiFi networks. So we logged onto the network fine, it accepted our password, but then we got network error messages instead of pages loading.

When this has happened to us before (at other properties), the hotels called their tech support and approved our IP address, letting us onto the network. Unfortunately, being a boutique hotel, International House has no tech support. The guy on front desk last night was a sweetie, apologized profusely and even took some time Googling our problem, but to no avail. We agreed to wait till the morning.

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Hotel Renovations / New Orleans Hotels / Hotel Bars / → All Tags

New Orleans' Hotel Monteleone and Carousel Bar Get a Round of Renovations

Where: 214 Royal St. [map], New Orleans, LA, United States, 70130

Grande dames may seem like the epitome of sophistication, but as Dame Elizabeth Taylor can attest, they all need a nip and tuck to stay current. So it's about time for New Orleans' grande dame, the Hotel Monteleone, to get a makeover.

Updates on the renowned Carousel Bar—its circular bar is tucked under a lit-up canopy that looks like it was stolen from the local children's carousel—started yesterday and are estimated to take place over the next several months. But you don't have to worry about missing out on the bar's famous drinks, since service will continue through construction. The renovations will add more seating to the bar and expand the entertainment areas.

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Earth Day Hotels / Eco-Friendly Hotels / Green Hotels / Marriott Hotels / New Orleans Hotels / → All Tags

The New Orleans Marriott Gets Recycling Help from the 'Trashmen'

Where: 555 Canal St. [map], New Orleans, LA, United States, 70130

All this week we will honor Earth Day by putting the spotlight on eco-friendly hotels. Got an Earth Day Hotel suggestion? Let us know.

The New Orleans Marriott is going all tree hugger. It's starting a recycling program with the help of the guys behind TLC's Trashmen, a series reality series about New Orleans garbage collectors.

The Marriott, which is only a few blocks away from the French Quarter, says it's the the first large hotel in the city to do launch such a program. Using the Trashmen's new recycling center, the Marriott will be able to recycle all paper, plastic and cans.

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Hotel News / Hot Hotelier News / New Orleans Hotels / Sean Cummings / → All Tags

Constance Will Go to the Ball In New Orleans, If Sean Cummings Has Anything To Do With It

Where: 221 Camp Street [map], New Orleans, LA, United States, 70130

International House – soon to be scene of a Dawson’s Creek Anti-Prom?

He may not be as in our faces as Andre, but we’ve always had a bit of a thing for New Orleans hot hotelier Sean Cummings. Not only is he a looker and reportedly mates with Brad Pitt, but he owns two gorgy hotels in the Big Easy biz district as well: the voodoo-y International House and Loft 523.

And now that we can add “socially responsible” to his qualities, he’s shot even higher up our crush list. It’s been reported that he’s offered to host the Mississippi prom that was cancelled after Constance McMillan asked to take her girlfriend with her.

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Twilight Hotels / Hotel Cocktails / W Hotels / New Orleans Hotels / Hotel Bars / → All Tags

Attention Tweens Over 21: Celebrate Twilight's 'New Moon' at Whiskey Blue Nola

Where: 333 Poydras St [map], New Orleans, LA, United States, 70130

Do you love, like really love "Twilight"? Have you read all the books front to back, twice? Are you holding countdown parties to the "New Moon" movie at your house? Would you turn immortal forever for Edward Cullen? And more importantly, are you over the age of 21?

Because that's how old you will need to be to attend the New Moon mania that's going on at Whiskey Blue New Orleans inside the W Hotel. All week long the trendy hotel bar will unabashedly embrace the "Twilight" craze and it's not entirely about Edward, Bella, and Jacob. There is an actual new moon happening on November 16th.

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